Armed Forces of the Overland
The Armed Forces of the Overland, also abbreviated as the AFO, was the combined military might of the Overlanders of Mobius. In its early days, the organization was known as the Northland Army in service to the Northland Colonies. Historically, this army has opposed that of the Kingdom of Acorn, though in theory they are opposed to all Mobian forces in keeping with general Overlander doctrine. In practice though, they are known to briefly ally themselves with smaller nation-states of Mobians in the area. They are a combined arms force consisting of both an army and an air force. However, they do not possess much in the way of watercraft, instead creating spacecraft to explore the areas around their homeworld. Though they have existed at least around 2310 or 2320, they are most well known for their action in the Great War of 3220 against the Kingdom of Acorn. The AFO was disbanded as terms of an unconditional surrender as the main bulk of the army was defeated at the Siege of Knothole at the closing days of the war. Overconfident commanders motivated by revenge for the kidnapping of Julian Kintobor were defeated by the very man they sought to retrieve, who had in fact defected and created a source of robotic warriors for the Kingdom. The remaining AFO forces, stripped of their weapons, were forced to leave the planet using what was left of the Lost Million's starships. As of 3241 though, the AFO exists in a reformed existence as the Overlander Colonial Guard on the new Overlander homeworld of Mabia; a purely reactionary force that exists to defend rather than go on an offensive. The general structure of the military remains more or less the same, but their role is more suited to peacetime garrison duty. Rank Structure The AFO does not follow the traditional rank structure of the military, meaning that while the Terra Novans and later their Mobian successors adopted ranking structure similar to North American armies, the Overlanders attempted something far different: the ranking structure of the AFO is inspired by Roman ranking as well as unit structures. They can be roughly analogous to the UNSC, but there is still some difference in how they distribute responsibility among units. A rank is known as a 'rate', identical to how a UNSC rank is also referred to as a 'rate', though instead of being known as a 'pay rate', it is instead known as a 'prestige rate'. The general structure of the Overlander military is as follows from lowest to highest rate: Taram (Ground Forces) * Auxiliary * Soldatus * Soldatus Primus * Soldatus Secundus * Optio * Optio Primus * Optio Majoris * Command Optius Majoris * Chief Optio Prime * Decanus * Decanus Primus * Centurion (Captain) * Centurion Primus * Sub Praetor * Praetor * Praetorian * Colonel * Sub General * General * High General Volare (Air Forces) * Volar Auxiliary * Volar * Volar Primus * Volar Secundus * Optio Volar * Optio Primus Volaris * Decanus Volaris * Aquila * Aquila Primus * Aquila Secundus * Command Aquilus * Centurion * Centurion Primus * Sub Praetor * Praetor * Caelar * Caelar Primus * Caelar Astra * Caelar Supremus In both cases of the Overlander military branches, specially appointed individuals called Prefectus serve similarly to warrant officers but have a far greater degree of power. They are known as 'rate fluid' meaning that they are not bound by the traditional structure. In addition to being warrant officers, they have a secondary role that could be roughly similar to that of an Inquisitor. Prefectii have the honor of ensuring that military laws and procedures are upheld and in the case of a severe enough breach, they have the power to report and sometimes even directly remove any man, officer or enlisted, from duty. As a result, Prefectii are one of the most loathed and feared roles in the AFO. Many officers aspire to become part of their ranks. Weaponry and Equipment AFO typically tends to utilize directed energy weapons over projectiles as the amount of damage one can put on a target with sustained energy fire can be catastrophic. Most units carry backpack fed energy weapons in the form of what are called 'projectors'. Mobians and even Humans tend to refer to these by traditional weapon terms such as 'rifles' though there is no such thing in these weapons. Overlander weapons tend to fire either plasma or directed beams of radiation such as heavily enhanced beams of electromagnetic waves or microwave beams. The latter being the most destructive and can cause extreme damage and death quickly. EM Projectors can burn targets and heavier variants of weapons can even completely vaporize a target. However, the AFO does equip its forces with projectile weapons in the form of a sidearm. Many of these weapons are built in a traditional layout that features box-fed semi-automatic action handguns. Handguns for the AFO are medium to heavy caliber with the standard issue AFO-92 holding ten .47 caliber hollow-point slugs. Overlander military doctrine heavily emphasizes putting a target down with great force in the shortest time possible to avoid prolonged contact. Melee combat is less emphasized, but still taught to Soladatii nonetheless. This may take the form of knife fighting, though higher ranked individuals may even carry swords as an honor weapon, though they are not expected to use them in combat, instead using them as a rallying symbol to raise morale. Body armor is designed to be heavy and protective which will stop bullets easily enough, though it is noted that Overlander armor is not optimized to stop energy weapons, ironically. Behind the Scenes Very little is known from the comics about the Overlander rank structure or how their army was laid out. The goal of this was to give some of the Overlanders a bit of an alien aspect to them even though they are more or less kind of Human. The inclusion of Roman ranks was something I wanted to do which I have to admit may have been inspired a little bit by Fallout: New Vegas. However, I went a bit further by expanding on a ranking structure that has a bit more detail to it. List of Appearances * The Story of Mobius (First Appearance) Category:Overlander Category:Military Category:Mobius